Sunday, November 28, 2010

News Hole

by digby

Today proves one thing about the media. When there's a natural disaster or a sex scandal, you turn on the TV. When there's real news unfolding, you go online.

Here's what I mean. Right now we have three extremely interesting stories unfolding. The first is that Ireland is on the brink of civil rebellion over the IMF imposed pain and suffering to bail out bankers. Again. The second is the North and South Korea are on the verge of war. The third is the Wikileaks revelations of diplomatic cables which are rife with fascinating tid-bits and interesting details.

You would think that all news organizations would be all over these stories. Instead CNN is re-running the same stupid story about how to deal with your credit card bills. MSNBC is doing "Death in the Hamptons."

The Sunday morning shows are have never been about breaking news so I won't pick on them. (Meet the Press did do a segment with Richard Engle about North Korea and Wikileaks.) But cable news is about breaking news and they're just missing in action on a pretty good news day. Well, except for FOX, which is doing a six part series called "The Rise, Fall and Future of Conservatism."

Twitter and the online versions of the papers are on fire today so journalism is still being done today. It's just not on TV.